Acknowledging opioid abuse is a problem even in our schools, the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board is launching a new anti-drug strategy explicitly aimed at the crisis.
Communications Coordinator Stephen Fields says it is a three-pronged approach to the problem. Students will be able to find information about how to identify opioid addiction and where to get help online. Information sessions will be held for students, parents, and teachers. Finally, the board is joining the leadership of the Windsor-Essex Opioid Strategy which is working to coordinate efforts to fight the crisis of opioid addiction.
"So, we've been invited to have a seat at the leadership table for that strategy so we'll be working very closely with a lot of the healthcare professionals," says Fields.
In the past, drug strategies focused on merely abstaining from illegal street drugs. Now, Fields says it will also warn students that opioids can sometimes be found in drugs taken for a recreational high, occasionally with deadly consequences.
"We still are going to suspend students if they are under the influence in a school, if they are possessing drugs in our schools," he says. "But at the same time, there's a more integrated approach where we are working with those students and working with their parents."
As for the rate of addiction in Windsor-Essex Catholic schools, Fields does not believe the board is an outlier.
"I don't think they're any greater or any less than they would be at any other school," he says. "We know they are there. We know that some of the street drugs the students may be experimenting with may be laced with opioids."
Last Friday, the Erie St. Clair LHIN announced it was spending $475,000 on addiction services in Windsor-Essex aimed exclusively at ending the opioid crisis. The money for Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre, and the Victoria Order of Nurses will increase the number of addictions counsellors working in the region and streamlining the process to seek help.
